Men's Tennis Continues To Warm Up For Season

In an effort to continue garnering match experience before the dual-match season begins, the Harvard men’s tennis team split up and traveled to not one, but two invitational meets this weekend.

Three players accompanied assistant coach Terry London to the Brown University Invitational in Providence, R.I., while five joined head coach Dave Fish ’72 in Charlottesville for the UVA Fall Invitational.

“It’s just shaking off the cobwebs,” London said, explaining what he hoped his team might gain from the competition. “We’re just trying to get more and more matches before [the results begin to count].”

In Charlottesville, freshman Dan Nguyen got his first taste of Crimson tennis, losing 7-6, 6-4 on Friday. His first Harvard victory came Saturday, when he won his initial consolation match 6-2, 6-2.

“He actually experienced [collegiate play],” said London of the team’s promising recruit, “and he got his feet wet for the first time this year.”Junior Caleb Gardner also lost on Friday, but sophomore Max Tedaldi netted a 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 come-from behind victory—though he would fall the next day 6-4, 6-0.

Meanwhile, in Providence, the Crimson tasted some of the success to which it has been accustomed in recent years.

Jonathan Chu, Harvard’s captain and the second seed, advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to the Cavaliers’ Marko Miklo, the tournament’s seventh seed. Freshman Ashwin Kumar also fell at UVA hands, dropping his first round match 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to one of the Cavaliers’ top recruits.

Together, though, Chu and Kumar won the doubles draw with what Fish deemed “a really, really fine match.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.